True or False Possession?

The question about the devil was put to me directly by a patient who had come to see me for treatment of depression and recovery from a serious drug addiction. As a physician, he had gained access to the intravenous anesthetic drug propofol and had self-administered it in order to escape from refractory insomnia and unrelenting depression. Without carefully titrated dosing, gleaned from his medical knowledge, this patient would surely have overdosed long ago. Indeed, it was something of a miracle that he was still alive.

During an interview, he suddenly interrupted the narrative of his psychiatric history, paused, and looked me directly in the eye. With a sober seriousness, and without a trace of hysterics or dramatization, he asked simply, “Do you believe in the Devil?”

I stared back. “Yes. I do.” “Me too,” he said.

Then after a pause, I inquired: “Why do you ask?”

“When I was injecting the propofol I felt something . . . enter into me. It was not the drug, but something else. The drug was just the gateway. It was . . . something . . . foreign.”

At no point in his treatment did I suspect this patient to be possessed, in the strict sense of the term. Yet, neither did I doubt the reality of a malevolent influence on him that exceeded in power and scope the physiological effects of the anesthetic he was abusing. He later related to me how this evil spirit would mock and taunt him as he slipped deeper into the hell of drug addiction.

Most of my colleagues in psychiatry probably would have regarded this exchange between doctor and patient as rather puzzling, even ludicrous. They would likewise regard a book like the one here as an oddity. A work purporting to distinguish between cases of true and false possession will seem to many a throwback to a bygone age of religious superstition. Yet a modern psychiatrist cannot help but be impressed by the author’s perspicuous medical and psychological analysis of each case he examines in these pages. This is not the work of a pre-modern credulous dupe, but the work of a skilled and experienced neurologist, who knows his trade and sees his way clearly into the tangled workings of the human mind and heart.

The author, a physician and not a theologian, skillfully navigates the Scylla of credulity and the Charybdis of relentless skepticism. Inclined by training and clinical experience to search first for naturalistic medical or psychiatric explanations for the phenomena in question, he nevertheless leaves open the possibility of explanations that go beyond what science or medicine can assess, as well as the possibility that any given manifestation may have elements of both the natural and preternatural. Originally published over fifty years ago, the author’s medical judgments and observations still hold true. While some clinical terminology may have changed in the interim, little could be brought to bear from modern neurology or psychiatry that would contradict his findings or conclusions. The clinical histories, fascinating in their own right aside from the author’s clinical assessment, are presented with sober clarity and reserve.

Believers have sometimes made the mistake of finding supernatural possession where there was only a pathological personality, given to the grossest hysterics and deceptions. This book provides fascinating accounts of false-possession cases, for example, those of Marie-Thérèse Noblet and Sr. Jeanne of the Angels. Here the author astutely notes that the repeated misapplication of the Rite of Exorcism may have exacerbated the behavioral disorder, in this case, hysterical (what we now call conversion) symptoms that were encouraged by the excessive attention received from the exorcist and by the public or overly dramatized way in which the exorcist misapplied the rite, in defiance of the prescriptions of the Roman Ritual. The curious onlookers fell prey to the colorful and dramatic, while the sick individual was motivated by receiving such attention. The author observes: “Well known, too, were all the criteria which the Church holds to be decisive of genuine possession, but they were scarcely heeded” in such cases. The cautionary note here comes not from a belief that the rite or the prayers themselves would be harmful, but rather from a desire to avoid an overly theatrical application of a sacramental in situations where the hysterical person was taking on the sick role precisely in order to draw attention to herself. The author discerns that it was the excessive attention, not the prayers of the rite itself, that could have exacerbated the behavioral symptoms.

In a similar vein, the author then recounts well-documented historical cases of mass hysteria and pseudoseizures, which often become “contagious” among those living in close quarters through suggestion and mimesis. Such phenomena could be accounted for by psychological observations known as early as the sixteenth century and given more definitive form in the work of the great French neurologist Charcot in the nineteenth century. Today, one could add a wider knowledge of culture-bound syndromes worldwide, with characteristically wild behavioral, dissociative, and somatic manifestations — such as the clinical syndrome Amok found among the Malaysians. In such cases, as the author concludes, “the influence of the demon is to be sought in vain.” Yet he also notes correctly that hysteria is not playacting and that those who manifested this behavioral disorder were not consciously feigning their symptoms or deliberately trying to deceive: “Hysterical patients, like all other sick people, deserve our understanding and our charity.”

With astute medical insight, the author describes a case of postpartum depression with psychotic features, including homicidal command-type auditory hallucinations: “One of my patients, for example, during a state of depression heard the devil in the middle of the night speaking to her and bidding her kill her child, then a few months old.” After acting on this impulse and tragically tossing the poor child out the window (fortunately the baby was only bruised), she received medical treatment and made a good recovery: “As for the mother, when she had been given electric shock treatment, she was not long in recovering her mental equilibrium.” Naturalistic explanations for such evil sensory perceptions and violent acts can often be found within the realm of well-described mental illnesses.

In light of such cases, a skeptical reader might wonder whether the Latin Rite of Major Exorcism should now be tossed into the dustbin? Is it the product of a bygone era, now known to be defunct and discredited by the findings of modern science and medicine? Have psychoanalytic concepts, or modern materialistic theories of the mind sufficiently disabused us of the need for supernatural explanations, for recourse to angels and demons? As our author poses the question, “If there can be no doubt of the existence of non-genuine possessions, are we in a position to distinguish them from the genuine?”

We still face this question: How do we account for the manifestations documented in many cases that were thoroughly examined by competent psychiatrists, cases still seen today that evade the explanations of skilled physicians? Can modern psychiatry or neurology give an account of all such things — of preternatural knowledge, of superhuman strength, of xenoglossia, of inexplicable rage toward sacred objects — or will science ever discover a naturalistic cause here? I have observed first- hand several of these demonic manifestations during an exorcism, manifestations for which I can find no explanation within the realm of natural science.

This book needs to be framed in the context of profound cultural shifts that have occurred since it was first published in 1956, most notably the rise of a widespread philosophy of materialism that turns appreciation for science into an ideological scientism. Such secularizing cultural changes surely influence the book’s readership. When the author wrote it, he could assume that most Catholic readers would, by and large, take for granted the necessity of exorcism in certain cases and not doubt its efficacy in instances of true possession. He was writing therefore with the prudent intent to avoid overzealous applications of the rite in cases that had not been sufficiently medically examined. But the background cultural assumptions today are radically different, even among many Catholics, including many clergy. Today the default assumption for many readers would be that naturalistic or medical explanations can always be found and can be taken as fully explanatory. The danger today is therefore precisely the opposite, namely, that the rite may now be under-applied rather than overused. Indeed, in many dioceses in the United States there is no available trained exorcist to deal with such cases, and afflicted individuals there- fore suffer without recourse.

This author knows the permanent limitations of his science: this book does not attempt to detail cases of what may be considered true possession, for these by their nature would lie outside the scope of the author’s explanatory powers or clini- cal expertise. That task is best left to the trained and experienced exorcist and to the theologian. Where the physician has reached the limits of his methods, where medical or psychological explanations simply cannot account for the phenomena, then the doctor must recognize the boundaries of his own craft and remain silent before the mystery of iniquity — the mystery of a real and effective evil personality that in rare cases may oppress and torment some few unfortunate souls.

In such cases the physician and the priest need to collaborate responsibly, and with respect for the insights of both science and theology. Fr. Gary Thomas, who is the subject of journalist Matt Baglio’s book, The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, recently recounted to me severe cases of demonic possession with extraordinary manifestations. Some of these I have since witnessed during an exorcism and can attest that such “symptoms” lie outside the scope of anything listed in the psychiatrist’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fr. Gary also gave me an invaluable insight into his work when he explained that an exorcism is always an act of healing. And so, of course, the Church recognizes the urgent need for competent neurologists and psychiatrists to work with exorcist in the process of discernment, diagnostics, treatment, and healing. But such collaboration presumes that each person — both the medical doctor and the priest exorcist — have something indispensable to contribute to this work of discernment and healing. This is a work of mercy, patterned after our Lord’s own acts of casting out demons and curing disease.

This was excerpted from the Introduction to True or False Possession by Jean Lhermitte, which is available from Sophia Institute Press

Aaron Kheriaty is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Program in Medical Ethics at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine. He serves as chairman of the clinical ethics committee at UCI Medical Center. Dr. Kheriaty graduated from the University of Notre Dame in philosophy and pre-medical sciences, and earned his MD degree from Georgetown University. He is the author of several books and articles for professional and lay audiences, and he lectures regularly on topics related to psychiatry, social science, bioethics, and spirituality. Dr. Kheriaty lives in San Juan Capistrano, California, with his wife and five sons.

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I read a book entitled “Exorcism, Encounters with the Paranormal and the Occult” by Fr. Syquia. He said people has preter-natural powers to see spirits (angels and demons) but this weakens during the fall of Adam and Eve. Some people has greater preternatural power than any of us at normal state where they can sense or see the presence of supernatural beings. Also when our body becomes weak like stressed, dying or drugged that is the time our preternatural power is strong. I thought the priest maybe right because drug addicts and dying people in the hospitals have stories of encountering supernatural beings.

ManofHonor

I got a little lost in reading this… so I just want to try and make it clear to myself of what your saying.
Your saying that not all Possessions are caused by demons but some by drugs?

thanks…

chaco

1 Cor. 2: 9 comes to mind; “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard… things God has prepared…” Also the expression; “For those who believe, no explaination is necessary – For those who don’t believe, no explaination will suffice.” Also Rom. 10: 9 ; “If you confess with your mouth… and believe in your heart…” suggests that belief in one’s heart isn’t as much a CHOICE as it is a GRACE (free-unmerited gift) which, would further suggest that praying for supernatural power is more useful than intellectual reasoning when converting souls to faith. Also, I like the idea; The thrill of experiencing true love would somehow be lessened if we totally understood it. Won’t it be great if the prophesy from Garabandal Spain (proposed Marian apparitions), that a supernatural sign will be given which can be seen but not altered by any means known to man, were to actually occur ? ie; Imagine a visible cross that can be seen by all but can’t be destroyed or altered – even by military instruments of destruction.